Metzger teaches literature and drama at the University of New Mexico and is an adjunct professor in the university honors program. Metzger is also a professional writer and the author of several reference texts on literature. In this essay, Metzger discusses Carson's poem and her decision to recycle ideas and words from an earlier poem into this work.

"New Rule" is a lament for lost love. This is a topic that Carson has dealt with before in her earlier poetry and, indeed, Carson even repeats lines from her 1995 poem, "The Glass House" in "New Rule." "New Rule" uses a short seven stanzas of verse to capture the narrator's grief at losing her love. The poem explores the inhuman pain at such a loss, the narrator's awareness of what has been lost, and her ultimate understanding that her life has been inexorably changed. These topics are also true of...